Awakenings from Then ’til Now allows you to Embrace Your Past, Empower the Present, Enrich Your Future.

Welcome to Awakenings

Life IS history in the making. Every word we say, everything we do becomes history the moment it is said or done. Life void of memories leaves nothing but emptiness. For those who might consider history boring, think again: It is who we are, what we do and why we are here. We are certainly individuals in our thoughts and deeds but we all germinated from seeds planted long, long ago.

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

This is a story
of the origins of Halloween from olden times up to the present.

Strange shadows dart
stealthily across sparely lit streets, as dusk settles heavily on quiet
neighborhoods of tree-lined sidewalks and cheerful well-kept homes. The eerie
scream of a screech-owl, more likely the brakes of a passing car, echoes deep into
the night. Looming ominously from nearly every window is the menacing glare of
smirking Jack-o-lanterns, while the often nervous refrain of "Trick or Treat"
rings out in repetitious peals. Halloween is here, and with it the shivery
remembrance of things that go bump in the night.

Halloween, a holiday once favored second to Christmas, is not as much fun as it
used to be. The last few Halloweens have brought tampering scares, such as
finding razors in apples and poisoned candy. A sick segment of society has
forced many parents to hold neighborhood parties, instead of allowing their
children to trick or treat. The tricks have been turned on the children, ruining
an a once magical evening.
﻿

Photo Credit: photobucket.com

Gone are the days when children, dressed up hideously, or gaudily beautiful,
could enter the home of a stranger, and be offered chilled apple cider with
cinnamon stick straws, and homemade gingerbread, or cupcakes with orange icing
and candy corn faces. No longer can mischievous children creep up on
neighborhood porches to toss corn kernels against the front door, or generously
soap window panes, without triggering house alarms and angering guard dogs kept
behind locked fences. The mystical lure of Halloween is becoming a commercial enterprise for the sale of candy, costumes and decorations.

Photo Credit: photobucket.com

Halloween is a Christian name meaning All Hallows, or All Saint's Day, but the
custom of Halloween dates back to the Celtic cult in Northern Europe. As the
Roman conquest pushed north, the Latin festival of the harvest god, Pomona,
mingled with the Druid god, Samhain. Eventually, the Christians adopted the
Celtic rites into their own observances.Halloween signified the return
of the herds from the pasture, renewal of laws and land tenures, and the
practice of divination with the dead, presumed to visit their homes on this
day. For both the Celts and the Anglo-Saxons, Halloween marked the eve of a new
year. The Britains were convinced that each divination concerning health, death and
luck, were most auspicious on Halloween. The devil, himself, was evoked for such
purposes.

The Druid year began on November first, and on the eve of that
day, the lord of death gathered the souls of the dead who had been condemned to
enter the body of animals to decide what form they should take for the upcoming
year; the souls of the good entered the body of another human at death. The
Druids considered cats to be sacred, believing these animals had once been
human, changed into cats as punishment for evil deeds.

﻿

Photo Credit: photobucket.com

The Druid cults were outlawed by the Romans during their reign in Great Britain,
but the Celtic rites have survived, in part, to the present day. By the time
these ancient rites migrated to America, the mystic significance was lost, and
all that has remained is an evening when children can dress in outrageous
costumes, and collect candy from obliging neighbors; yet a tiny part of every
child still believes in witches, ghosts, and the nameless entities that creep
about on Halloween, relatives, to their young minds, of the monster that lives
under every child's bed.

In the ancient days, it was believed that
Halloween was the night chosen by witches and ghosts to freely roam, causing
mischief and harm. Witchcraft existed before biblical times, believed in by
ancient Egyptians, Romans and American Indians. The Christian Church held
varying opinions on witchcraft, at one time accrediting it to be an illusion,
later accepting it as a form of alliance with the devil. As late as 1768,
disbelief in witchcraft was regarded as proof of atheism.Halloween
customs varied from country to country, but all were related to the Celtic
rites. Immigrants to this country, particularly the Scotch and Irish, introduced
some of the customs remaining today, but there were many more that are
unfamiliar. On Halloween in Scotland, women sowed hemp seed into plowed land at
midnight, repeating the formula: "Hemp seed I sow, who will my husband be, let
him come and mow." Looking over her left shoulder, a woman might see her future
mate.
﻿

Photo Credit: photobucket.com

Apples and a six-pence were put into a tub of water, and whoever succeeded in
extracting either of them with his mouth, but without using his teeth, was
guaranteed a lucky year. In the highlands of Scotland in the 18th century,
families would march about their fields on Halloween, walking from right to
left, with lighted torches, believing this would assure good crops. In other
parts of Scotland, witches were accused of stealing milk and harming cattle.
Boys took peat torches and carried them across the fields, from left to
right (widdershins), in an effort to scare the witches away.
The Scots strongly believed in fairies. If a man took a three-legged stool to an
intersection of three roads, and sat on it at midnight, he might hear the names
of the people destined to die in the coming year. However, if he tossed a
garment to the fairies, they would happily revoke the death sentence.

Scotland's witches held a party on Halloween. Seemingly ordinary women, who had
sold their souls to the devil, put sticks, supposedly smeared with the fat of
murdered babies, into their beds. These sticks were said to change into the
likenesses of the women, and fly up the chimney on broomsticks, attended by
black cats, the witchs' familiars.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia
(Click thumbnail to enlarge.)

In Ireland, a meal of callcannon, consisting of mashed potatoes, onions and
parsnips, was solemnly served on Halloween. Stirred into this concoction, was a
ring, a thimble, a coin, and a doll. The finder of the ring would marry soon,
the finder of the doll would have many children, the thimble finder would never
marry, and the one fortunate enough to find the coin would be rich.
Jack-o-lanterns originated from Ireland, where according to newspaper editor and
writer, George William Douglas, "a stingy man named Jack was barred from Heaven
because of his penuriousness, and forbidden to enter Hell because of his
practical jokes on the devil, thus condemned to walk the earth with his lantern
until Judgement Day."A more serious custom was the holding of the General Assembly (Freig) at Tara, in
Celtic Ireland, celebrated every three years and lasting two weeks. Human
sacrifices to the gods opened the ceremonies, the victims going up in
flames.England borrowed many of the Scotch and Irish customs, adding
﻿them to their own. ﻿

Photo Credit: Google Image

Young people bobbed for apples, tied a lighted candle to
one end of a stick and an apple to the other. The stick was suspended and set
spinning, the object of the game being to bite the apple without getting burned
by the candle. This custom was a relic of the fires lighted on the eve of
Samhain in the ancient days of the Celts.The only customs bearing no
relation to the ancient rites is the masquerade costumes of today, and Halloween
parades. But the custom of masked children asking for treats comes from the
seventeenth century, when Irish peasants begged for money to buy luxuries for
the feast of St. Columba, a sixth century priest, who founded a monastery off the
coast of Scotland.

From the north of England comes the activity known as "mischief night", marked
by shenanigans with no particular purpose, or background. Boys and young men
overturned sheds, broke windows, and damaged property. Mischief night prevails
today, but is mostly limited to throwing eggs, smashing pumpkins, and lathering
cars with shaving cream. The custom of trick or treat is observed mainly by small
children, going from house to house. The treat is almost always given, and the
trick rarely played, except by teenagers, who view Halloween as an excuse to
deviate from acceptable behavior.

Children today, knowing little or
nothing of the history and myths behind Halloween, still get exited over the
prospect of acting out their fantasies of becoming a witch, ghost, devil, or
pirate. It is still pleasurable for an adult, remembering Halloweens past, to
see the glow on a child's face as he removes his mask and assures you that he's
not really a skeleton. Watching the wide-eyed stares of young children warily
observing flickering candle-lit pumpkins, is an assurance that even today,
thousands of years beyond the witch and ghost-ridden days of the Druids, a
little of the magic of Halloween remains. Children need a little magic to become
creative adults; adults need a little magic to keep the child in them alive. So
if, on this Halloween, you notice a black cat slink past your door, trailing
behind a horde of make-believe goblins, it probably belongs to a neighbor. And
the dark shadow whisking across the face of a nearly full moon is only the wisp
of a cloud, not a witch riding a broom... probably.

﻿

By
the pricking of my thumbs,Something wicked this way comes.Open,
locks,Whoever knocks!-Shakespeare

Sunday, October 28, 2012

At some point in time, you have had or perhaps will have your heart pierced by the loss of a loved one. While you may not bleed outwardly as those inflicted by daggers of war, the pain and sorrow weigh heavily on your heart and mind as you pass through this mortal life on Earth. Freedom is not free, it comes at a price, a very high price of sacrifice: personal sacrifice, sacrifice of family and friends, yesterday, today and tomorrow. Set aside a few moments now, tomorrow and every day thereafter in recognition and appreciation of those who sacrifice every day ensuring the rights and freedoms in America will be protected for generations to come. The fight to maintain freedom is not just for today, it is for America's future.

We have come far; suffered much; gained, lost, regained;

let it not all be in vain.

Support our Troops! They support America, do you support them?It's up to you! Stand up for America! The 2012 Presidential Election is on Tuesday, November 6.Be sure you wear the button. . .
﻿

Saturday, October 27, 2012

The Statue of Liberty celebrated her 100th birthday on October 28, 1986. On that same day in 1886 she was officially accepted by the president of the United States as a gift from the people of France. Opened on January 1, 1892, Ellis Island became the nation's premier federal immigration station.The statue was to be a symbol of welcome for all immigrants coming to America, as well as a universal symbol of freedom.

"For the vast majority of immigrants, Ellis Island truly was an "Island of Hope" - the first stop on their way to new opportunities and experiences in America. For the rest, it became the "Island of Tears" - a place where families were separated and individuals were denied entry into this country."

Sunday, October 21, 2012

What is it about blues music that tears at the soul? Perhaps it stems from the sounds of the laborers in the cotton fields of the South bringing home the rhythm to the drudgery of their plight and servitude. Such work songs brought to life by "field hollers" served as the foundation for all blues music to come.Of course, at the heart of 'blues' is the human voice. After all, that is where it got its start. It's unique slow sound embedded the emotion and personal expression of life's hard times. As it evolved, the guitar became the 'second voice' closely followed by the harmonica. There are several recurring themes enveloping blues music. These encircle the life and times of love, loss, death, tragedy, and oppression. The music is of low tone, which digs at the heart with compassion as it bleeds of sadness.So why the emphasis on wine, whiskey and women? While blues music may have started in the fields, it extended beyond the plantation into smokey backroom juke joints. Crap games and card games took over the back room, brawls were common and the whiskey flowed. Women frequented the joints looking for a good time and excitement outside the home. Infidelity was not uncommon as witnessed in the lyrics of blues songs where the man stayed home with the kids while the wife was out clubbin'!While the era may have faded away, blues music is undoubtedly here to stay!

Saturday, October 20, 2012

"Sweetest Day" originated in Cleveland, Ohio on October 8, 1921 – it’s original purpose was to offer something “sweet” to orphans, hospital patients, the elderly and the less fortunate residents of Cleveland. Later on it became an event similar to Valentine’s Day but is not designated solely to romantic love. This day celebrates all things sweet: it serves as a reminder that a thoughtful deed makes life a whole lot sweeter.

Although Sweetest Day is most popular in the Great Lakes region, the holiday is gaining recognition nationwide. It is celebrated on the third Saturday of October each year.

To celebrate Sweetest Day, share a meal with a loved one, send thoughtful greetings in a free eCard, and remember to do a good deed for someone in need!

The joy of living is the joy of giving, and Sweetest Day gives you the opportunity of spreading happiness to strangers as well as those you love. Share the joy!

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Artistic talents come in many forms and are seen through varied lens, the most important being the human eye. Free Tag Zoneintroduces us to a new perspective on graffiti. The term, graffiti, colors itself as scribbling, scratches, or illicit displays found on walls or other surfaces generally in public places. A natural reaction to graffiti is negativity for its first impression is normally an act of defacement.

Street art photography exposes graffiti in a totally different light. It brings to life art in its purest form found all over the world, in the countryside, in small towns, in capital cities, some in plain view, others hidden waiting to be discovered. This type of photography will change your view the next time you see doodles, scrawls and scribbles on a wall or anywhere for that matter. And, watch out for those murals – think about the detail involved in an oil painting on canvas when you focus on awe-inspiring scenes that invite you to "walk right into the picture."

Is it real or art? You decide. . .

When I first saw this one, I had to look twice to validate it as art, instead of a real-life scene. The horse appears to be stepping outside the doorway. The manner in which the actual street meets the building makes it very realistic.

Date taken: September 7, 2012

Location: St Stephen st Geoirs - Isère (France)

Photographer: Orépuk

In this next one, look closely at the sky. Hard to discern which part is real and which is actually painted on the building. Can you tell which people or which street lights are real and which are not?

Date taken: September 21, 2008 (Car Free Day)

Location: Musée Magritte - Place Royale

Photographer: Michele Lemoine

﻿

The painters in this picture appear to be working very hard to complete their project. Of course, they are not really painting. The artist painter painted the painters painting the building. Whew!

﻿

“The Painters”

Date taken: October 02, 2012

Location : The building is at Higgins and Maple – Winnipeg, Manitoba (Canada)

This one is a real teaser testing your perception. Is that a real appartment complex? Some of the people are real and some are simply part of the painting. Can you tell the difference? What about the person standing on the balcony or the car on the street - real or art?

Date taken: July 26, 2012

Location: Biarritz - France

Photographer: Gilles Mézierre

Ah-h-h! This last one makes you want to caution the painter about stretching too far when on a ladder. Guess he wants to be sure he is out of the way of the door. Quite a unique perspective highlighting the number of the address on the storefront. Bet you wouldn't miss this address?

"The Painters"

Date taken: October 2, 2012

Location: The building is at Higgins and Maple
(North side) - Winnipeg, Manitoba (Canada)

They certainly look real, don't they? Hard in some instances to discern where the picture ends and real life begins. Before leaving be sure you took a deeper look into this world of art, how it all got started and the actual locations of the murals. Clink the links embedded within the text and captions of the images. Be sure to visit Free Tag Zonewhere there is more, so mu-u-u-uch MORE to this world of street art .

My Invitation and Contributions﻿

Free Tag Zone invited me to become a member of the Voyage en éphémèreinternational project. My passion is writing, poetry and blogging, which has opened a new door to the world of photography. Two blogs currently running are Awakenings and catnipoflife. Awakenings invites you to journey through a flashback time. It allows you to embrace your past, empower the present, enrich your future. Through catnipoflife, you are led to observe life at its best, listen to life’s songs, embrace life’s bounties, breathe the breath of life and savor life to its fullest. Visions for these writings or any writing – fiction, non-fiction or poetry – are heightened through the world of photography for in this world, the art comes to life.

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About Me

Sharla is a graduate of Troy State University and an educator with a flair for writing in poetic verse. Her latest book, Awakenings from Then ’til Now is available from Tate Publishing. It is dedicated to those who laid the foundation and established the platform for our American freedom: those who have served in the past, presently serve, or will serve our military forces in the future. A profound appreciation is extended for the sacrifice of these brave men and women who left or will leave their homes and family to ensure America’s freedom endures.

A grave price is being paid every moment of every day of the year for all the freedom America has to offer. Let us not forget those who have fought or are fighting for our nation; they are the epitome of the human spirit called freedom!